Demure
by Hime-koi
Summary: In a world where specific children are forbidden to speak, the rowdy falls for the reserved. — Kagami/Kuroko.
1. prologue

**Demure**

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In a world where specific children are forbidden to speak, the rowdy falls for the reserved. — Kagami/Kuroko.

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**Prologue**

If there was one thing he learned from his classes, it was to never associate with a Mute. The books described them as revolting, atrocious, absolutely detestable, etc. The list goes on and on with various words to describe the hatred that the Vocals held for them, a group of people that might as well have been a completely different species.

He'd himself never met a Mute or seen one for that matter. They lived separately from the Vocals, in a location that was unknown to him. He constantly wondered if he'd even know the difference between a Mute and a Vocal if he were to meet one since, as the books said, there was no way to tell by appearance as they were all human in the end.

But, he did wonder why they were so hated. So feared. It was if the Vocals feared the Mutes would hurt them. But would they? He didn-

"Bakagami!"

Oh, here we go.

Thoughts unfortunately interrupted, Kagami Taiga turned his attention towards his previously closed bedroom door to see the face of his "friend," Aomine Daiki. This scenario happened at least three times every day and usually ended in one (or both) of them sporting a fresh new bruise. Kagami felt as if he really didn't have time for this.

"What the hell do you want, asshole?" Kagami snarled out. "Can't you see I was enjoying the quiet?"

Aomine smirked. "More irritated than usual, Bakagami. What's up your ass?"

Kagami turned away from him. As much as he would like to talk to someone about the Vocal and Mute dispute that he seemed strangely fascinated in, he definitely wouldn't share it with someone like Aomine. He probably wouldn't take him seriously anyway even if he did decide to talk about it with him.

"Nothing," he said without looking at Aomine. "Get the fuck out of my room now."

Kagami could practically feel the frown forming on Aomine's face and expected a slur of curse words in his direction, but instead he got a pretty calm response. "Hey, are you okay? You seem...different than usual. If you need to talk, then talk. Shit, that sounds cheesy."

Aomine really wasn't good with words, but somehow that made Kagami actually want to tell him what was on his mind. However, since he wasn't sure of his friend's standing on the topic, he started off with a question. "Why...why do you think we are supposed to hate the Mutes so much?"

Silence. As the seconds dragged on, Kagami began to grow more and more nervous. Maybe he shouldn't have even brought it up. He turned to look at Aomine and cringed when he saw the look of surprise on his face. That was a pretty rare occurrence. Aomine blinked a few times and then put his hand awkwardly at the back of his head.

"Hell, I don't really know, man," he replied. "I suggest...not thinking about it too much. I mean, those fucking Mutes deserve all the hate they're getting and that's that."

Aomine turned to the doorway and approached it slowly. As he made his departure, he said one final thing that made Kagami think he might know something about the whole situation. His eyes widened as Aomine said this, leaving quickly afterwards. But, what the hell did he mean by that? As he thought of new solutions to quench his curiosity about the Mutes, he replayed Aomine's words in his head.

"Just don't trust a damn Mute. All they do is betray you."

* * *

_Author's Note: Wow, this is pretty dumb. I mean, I've never wrote Kuroko no Basket fanfiction so everyone is going to be so OOC. I'm really starting to have regrets, haha. Anyway, this is a gift for my cousin, Elexia, who turns sixteen tomorrow! You better have liked this, Lexi because KagaKuro is going to be the main pairing and we both know I would have given AoKise the spotlight if this wasn't a gift fic! I hope everyone else liked this as well, and thank you very much for reading!_

_Please review! Not only do several reviews encourage me to write more, but constructive criticism is always welcome if you have the time! :)_

_Note about the below dictionary: As characters or terms are introduced, they will be included here in case you don't understand as things go on. Also, if Kagami learns more about something later on, the updated term will be included. For example, he knows little to nothing about Mutes at the moment so the definition of them is short._

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**Demure Dictionary**

**Kagami Taiga - **Demure's protagonist. A young Vocal who is very curious about the relationship between Mutes and Vocals, their history, and what his friend may know about them.

**Aomine Daiki - **Kagami's best friend. Maybe. A young Vocal who detests Mutes and becomes pretty standoffish when asked about them.

**Mutes - **A hated group of humans that live separately from everyone else in a fairly secluded area.

**Vocals - **The "regular" humans who live happily together, but pretty much all of them fear and dislike the Mutes.


	2. sand

**Demure**

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In a world where specific children are forbidden to speak, the rowdy falls for the reserved. — Kagami/Kuroko.

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**chapter one - sand**

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"And that concludes the extensive history of the modern era of the Vocals. Now, turn to page 203 in your textbooks to continue the lesson on the Silent Sanctuary. It first formed during the reign of..."

_Yawn. _

This was the first time in days that Kagami bothered to even attend this class. It was basically a History class that explained the current state of the Vocals and the Mutes. He thought that he could quench his newfound curiosity by attending, but he was wrong. The teacher skipped completely over conflicts involving the two groups and talked about them separately, more in favor of the Vocals of course. Therefore, Kagami felt like this was an utter waste of his time. In fact, he was sure he was the only one awake in the class.

With a quick skim, he noticed that only a few studious students were taking notes and paying attention. Everyone else was asleep or occupying themselves without something else. When his eyes caught Aomine sitting in the back with his head on his desk, he frowned remembering the conversation they'd had a few days ago. He'd wanted to ask Aomine what he meant by those words, but he knew it would be in vain. It was rare when Aomine actually opened up to him.

Kagami sighed and leaned back in his chair. Ever since that conversation, he'd wondered what Aomine was hiding. And even more, he wondered if by going to the Silent Sanctuary, the desolate place where the Mutes lived, he would find the answers to all of his questions and possibly more. He knew it was crazy since he knew little to nothing about them, but as he thought more and more about it, it turned out to be a better idea than he thought at first.

Tonight.

Kagami pushed his chair back up to his desk as the teacher began to wrap up the lesson.

Tonight was the night he was going to go. While everyone was sleeping so they couldn't stop him.

* * *

That night, Kagami worked pretty quickly. He gathered everything he would need into a backpack: his Messenger, snacks, a change of clothes (although he was sure he wouldn't be there more than a couple of hours), a flashlight, and a map pointing to the Silent Sanctuary. The map was actually fairly difficult to come across considering that all easily accessible maps, global positioning devices, or anything that could be used to get around, lacked the Silent Sanctuary's location. Kagami didn't know why, but that's what this expedition was for. He was going to find answers.

Kagami swung the backpack onto his shoulders and took a glance at the clock positioned on his wall.

It was close to 12. Everyone in the neighborhood should be fast asleep by now (or at least in their respective homes) if they were following the curfew. The curfew was set up years ago before Kagami was even born to keep the Vocals and Mutes from interacting during night hours. Kagami would have to use one of the roundabout ways to get out of the Vocal Vicinity if he wanted to avoid getting caught.

He took one last look around his room. After all, even though he planned on coming back before anyone noticed him gone, something might happen and he might never see this room again.

With a chuckle, he shook that thought away. Of course he'd be back. It wasn't like he was going to stay in the Silent Sanctuary. He didn't belong there.

Kagami crossed the room, took one last look, and exited the room. He had no time to be reflecting on how long it would take him to come back.

* * *

_3:00 AM_

Although Kagami would have preferred to deny it, he had to admit (at least to himself) that he was maybe just a little lost. The last right (or was it a left?) that he took was completely wrong, leading him to a fairly sandy area where the only thing he could see in the distance was water. At first, he thought that he was close, considering that the area was so in contrast to the greenery regularly found around the Vocal Vicinity, but that thought was quickly shot down when he realized there were no houses close by.

He checked the map again, but there was no way he could tell where he was. It was if as soon as he'd gone off course, he'd wandered into unexplored territory.

Kagami shook his head and immediately pushed that thought away. Unexplored territory meant no one but him would know it existed and no one knew their way around it. It also meant that if he did end up wanting to go home, he wouldn't be able to be rescued. And that was the thought that scared him enough to push him forward.

He walked a while later until he realized that he seemed as if he wasn't moving at all. He could still only see the same body of water in the distance and it didn't look as if it got any closer. He blinked. Was this real? Is this just an illusion? Kagami figured that maybe he was back at home, sound asleep in his bed, only dreaming of venturing out to the Silent Sanctuary.

He shook his head once again. No, that definitely wasn't right. He was absolutely sure he was awake.

After taking one more look around, Kagami sighed and sat down. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

_5:54 AM_

A while later, Kagami was awoken by a series of pushes to his shoulder.

Drearily he opened his eyes and looked into the cold blue eyes of a kid around his age. The kid also had light blue hair. However, it wasn't his physical appearance that Kagami was currently worrying about. It was the stare that the other male was currently giving him; a blank stare that showed absolutely no interest in the stranger before him.

Kagami quickly sat up and looked around. He was no longer in the sandy area, but rather in a bedroom. One that he assumed belonged to the boy standing in front of him. He swallowed and opened his mouth to try and seem like he wasn't that nervous over being basically "kidnapped."

"W-who the hell are you?" he managed.

The boy continued to stare at him.

Kagami felt himself begin to sweat. That gaze really was kind of creepy.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he demanded, pushing fear aside. "Can't you sp-...?"

And then it came to him. The kid was a Mute. An actual Mute. He'd been searching for the Silent Sanctuary and somehow came across a mini-Mute who literally kidnapped him and brought him home. At this point, he wasn't sure how to feel. His curiosity was peaked, but he figured now was definitely not the time to quench it.

"You're a damn Mute," Kagami breathed out. "Wow. First one I've ever met."

The Mute boy finally looked away from him. His expression had not changed overall, but it seemed as if he were no longer keeping himself occupied with Kagami presently. In fact, it seemed as if he was about to leave Kagami there and go somewhere else. Kagami just watched as the Mute boy made his way across the room.

"Wait!" he exclaimed, jumping up to follow him.

The Mute boy opened the door leading out of the bedroom and entered the hallway. Kagami expected something different from his home, but was surprised to see pretty much the same ordinary things he also owned. Decorations such as potted plants were placed here and there, various pictures covered the walls of the hall, and there were several doors leading to other rooms scattered all about.

After taking all of this in, Kagami turned back to the Mute. Everything was happening way too fast. He'd only wanted to go in and out, and somehow he'd gotten himself into this mess. He didn't know anything about this kid. The Mute and his family could hate Vocals as much as the Vocals hated Mutes and could take revenge on them by killing Kagami.

Kagami shivered and tried to think of happier thoughts as he walked.

The Mute turned the corner, entering into another room. Kagami followed him through the threshold, but then stopped when he noticed was inside. Shelf after shelf filled with books. A library?

"Okay, why do you have a library in your house?" he asked, circling the room. "And what the hell are we doing here?"

The other boy seemed to ignore his questions and headed for a table in the corner. On the table sat a simple notepad and a pencil. Both looked as if they hadn't been touched in a while. After retrieving these items, the Mute boy headed back to Kagami. Kagami had literally no idea what he was doing or about to do.

The Mute flipped open the notepad and began to write. After a while he turned the notepad to Kagami. Kagami read the words, curiously.

"I don't believe you deserve an answer to your many questions, Vocal," said the words. "Now, how about you answer one of my questions: What were you doing in front of the Entrance?"

Kagami twitched angrily at the first sentence, but decided to just snarl out a short question. "The Entrance?"

The Mute scribbled again on the notepad. "The Entrance aka the entrance to the Silent Sanctuary of course. It's shielded so idiotic Vocals such as yourself couldn't get through, but I guess you didn't know that, did you?"

"Hey! I'm not a fucking idiot!" Kagami spit out. "And for your information, I was coming to the Silent Sanctuary _on purpose_."

The Mute looked a bit taken aback by that, and Kagami admitted to himself that he was a bit happy that he made the kid's otherwise blank expression fall for at least a second. Guess he wasn't as tough as he thought he was.

"Why," the Mute wrote. "Why would you want to come here?"

Kagami thought for a bit. "To be honest, I was a little curious."

"You don't hate us?"

Kagami shook his head at this. Why would the Mute even care about that.

The Mute's eyebrows furrowed. He looked like he was a bit confused. Nevertheless, he still put his pencil to paper. "What's your name?"

"Kagami Taiga," Kagami said, narrowing his eyes. "Yours?"

"Kuroko Tetsuya," the Mute wrote out. He paused for a bit before writing once again. "I'm a bit surprised that you noticed me right off when you woke up. That's not a usual thing around here." He stopped for a while, and then wrote one last time. "Also, I don't regularly write much so don't expect me to answer all of your questions, Kagami-kun."

Kagami stood up straight and looked at the smaller boy sternly, but his expression immediately melted into a smirk and he crossed his arms. "Fine, fine, Kuroko, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to still ask them."

Kuroko shook his head at the taller boy and headed toward the library entrance, beckoning Kagami to follow him. Kagami trailed after him, having several other questions.

He did, however, wonder why they hadn't encountered another Mute yet.

* * *

_Author's Note: Do I get the award for worst fanfiction author yet? Not only are my works atrocious, but I never update. Bonus points. Anyway, I feel like there was major OOC in this chapter? I also think maybe I introduced Kuroko too soon, but who knows? Tell me what you guys think!_

_Thanks for all of the follows, reviews, and favs by the way! I love you all! :3_

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**Demure Dictionary**

**Silent Sanctuary - **Self-explanatory. The area in which all of the Mutes reside.

**Vocal Vicinity - **Self-explanatory. The area in which all of the Vocals reside.

**Messenger - **Basically a cellular phone with a few different functions.

**Kuroko Tetsuya - **Kagami's new acquaintance. A young Mute who discovered Kagami on the outskirts of the Silent Sanctuary's Entrance. Communicates with a pencil and note pad.

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**Review Replies (ignore if you didn't review!)**

**HyourinShuriken - **Thank you so much! I was going for a futuristic-esque style so I'm happy it came off as that. I'm happy you enjoyed it!

**Tikkia - **Aw, thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

**Ai Enmaxjigoku shoujo - **Thanks a lot! And, yes, I'm really happy to contribute. Glad you enjoyed!

**Guest - **Hmm, I'll have to think about that one. Seems like a good idea though so thank you for the suggestion!

**thisgirldanielle - **Thank you! Haha, yeah, I was hoping it was unique enough.

**maeri - **Thank you! Yeah, AoKise is my favorite KnB pairing :D

**new reader - **Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

_Note: If you review as a Guest, use a pretty unique name please so I don't have to number guests! I'm just saying it now so it won't happen in the future, hopefully. :)_


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